Shadow of a Doubt
by Riddle-me-Think
Summary: Some times life isnt to kind to us, and were used like puppets in a play. Louise shoes testament to this, as she is known to be failur. perhaps its time to take part in a new act to this play.
1. A New Act

**All rights to the Anime Familiar Of Zero are not mine**

Inside the stone halls of the castle, known as the Tristain Academy of Magic, a young pinkette of small stature, being only five foot, rushed past other students and to the courtyard. Today was very important for a young mage like herself. For today was the day she and her fellow student were to summon there own Familiars that would show off there true selves in each respect.

As of right now, that wasn't going to happen for her as she was running somewhat late. She could almost here her enemy Zerbst's mocking voice in her head for being late to this summoning. In fact, the day prior to this one, she herself had told Zerbst that she would summon the most greatest Familiar to grace this Academy and put all others to shame. Part of her was actually regretting that…

never the less, she did make it some what on time. Already half the area had various beasts standing next to there summoners, ranging from something as small as a insect, to the size of dragons, one of which, was standing next to a blue hared girl with glasses and reading a book while holding her staff.

"What?" Was the pinkettes first thought at the sight of the Dragon next to the blue haired girl that seemed to only pay attention to the book before her.

"About time you arrived Louise." Said a voice behind her, making the pinkette identified as Louise turn around and glare.

"Kirche." Louise somewhat hissed, looking at the more developed beauty before her. She was five foot seven with tanned skin and fiery red hair that reached about to her waist.

"Now, now Louise." Said the redhead that wasn't effected by her more smaller rivals glare "There's no need to get so hostel…unless your just jealous that Tabitha has the best Familiar here." She smirked while pointing towards the blue haired girl and her Dragon.

Louise was going to retort, but was cut off by there teacher, Professor Colbert who called for Kirche. The said girl only walked passed Louise without a second glace, ignoring her completely. The smaller girl could only seethe in anger and glare daggers into her fellow students cranium as she walked on to there Teacher.

Once she had reach the appointed spot did she raise her want and begin to chant. After she was finished was she rewarded with a warm light, depositing a creature before her. When the light died down Kirche couldn't help but look approvingly at her new Familiar before her.

It was a Salamander that was a brilliant red that reflected the suns light, showing off its colors. At the end of the six foot long Salamander was a strong flame, burning on its own accorded and not harming the creature in the least.

"Well, aren't you magnificent!" The red head cooed while crouching down to it and patting its head. It purred back with a smile of its own. Bring her wand up, Kirche chanted the next spell for binding this creature as her Familiar.

Suddenly, at the sight of what her 'Rival' had summon started to make Louise regret making that proclamation yesterday. 'How could I be so stupid!' She mentally scolded herself 'No mage knows what Familiar they'll get, so how would I know I would call up the greatest?' It was that thought that reminded her of that title. That insult of a title that-

"Louise Valliere."

Louise shook her head from her thoughts at her name being called and took a quick deep breath and marched forth. It was time to shed that insult of a title.

So, when she reach the spot next to Professor Colber, it was with great confidence she raised her wand and began to her own chant.

"My servant that exists in this vast universe!" She started, getting a few students confused and wonder what sort of spell she was using.

"My wise, divine, powerful and beautiful servant heed my call!" Louise went on, holding her arm high "Fulfill my wish and appear!" And swung her arm down.

Not a moment latter was there an explosion, blowing them all back and clouding the place with smoke.

All around curses, insults and coughing could be heard around her because of her 'Summoning spell'.

'No, not another failure!' Her mind screamed. This wasn't suppose to happen. Not the explosion, or knocking down the others or blasting Colbert away; how could this day get any worse?!

Her answer was in the form of a strong wind that blew away the smoke and reviled-

"A doll?" She asked looking at the half foot object at her feet. Admittedly, it look rather adorable with its hooded cloak with midnight blue coloring. The tip of the hood seemed to come up and swirl forwards in a sort of spiral shape.

"Louise summoned a toy doll?" Some one laughed while looking at the said toy.

"Is it one of your old toys Louise?" Asked another in amusement.

"I would say she always lives up to expectation, but this beats past that!" Another jeered while pointing at the doll.

"I-I-It was a mistake!" Louise said in her defense, flushing in embarrassment. She didn't think things could go any more badly, but things did.

"Now class," Started Colbert that was just now recovering from a almost point blank blast "There is no reason to tease Louise". Turning to the young Valliere and the doll that laid before her, he could only sigh. She was to summon a Familiar creature, yet got some toy. The summoning was a success in a sense. Only…it brought an inanimate object and not some creature like it should.

'How do I deal with a situation like this?' He asked himself in thought. In truth, nothing like this has ever happened. You either summon your Familiar and continue on, or nothing and fail.

"Professor Colbert, please let me try again!" Louise pleaded as her fellow students continued to badger her on her supposed failure.

"I cant do that Louise and you know it." He said sadly to the deflated student before him. No matter how he looked at this situation, he would doubt any of the Teachers would recognize this as a summons, even if he put his words in.

With a heavy sigh he said to the surrounding students "Today's summoning rituals are over, you are all dismissed." before looking back at the small pinkette while the rest of the student body left.

As they left, Louise looked down at the doll that laid there before her and kneeled down to it. How did things turn out down so badly? She was to summon something great, but instead some force beyond her comprehension decided to throw a useless toy in her face! If she wasn't a mockery before, she truly was now!

"Miss Valliere…" He started, having a hard time looking at the girl who was picking up the doll from the ground. He could see a few tears roll down her cheek as she turned to look at him. He felt slightly heart broken while looking at Louise's glossy eyes that threatened to pour out a water fall of tears. He knew this was her last chance to go on as being a Mage, but now?

He could only sigh again as he informed her "Louise, you are to go to your dorm and pack up your things and be ready to leave in two days. We will inform your family of your return." With that he turned around and left.

After waiting a few moments, Louise got up and rubbed away the tears that were still on her face and went to her room, looking at the six inch tall doll the whole way.

'Why?' She thought while passing up some first year students 'Why is my life always centered around failure?' She turned to her left and continue down the hall, still trying to figure out her dilemma. Things seem to never turn out for the best.

Once she did make it to her room and lock the door, she couldn't help but look at the doll one last time before letting her emotions out and claps where she was to cry. By now night was upon the Academy as she let out her tears that dripped onto the doll, staining its little cloths with more darker spots.

She stayed like that for a while before wiping her eyes with her arm, sniffing as she did. She felt tired, and wanted some sleep. Tomorrow she would pack her things, but right now…she just wanted to sleep.

Lifting her self up with slight difficulty, she set the doll down on the table, sitting it up along the vase before undressing herself and putting on her night gown. From there she put her wand down on her night stand and put out the candle light, then went under her comforter and closed her eyes for a very unrestful slumber.

An hour latter, all was silent. No sound was made and only dark shadows remain as the night went on. Then, some movement could be seen in the dark. Slowly, two yellow spots appeared in the shadowed hood of the doll as its body twitched. Slowly, it sat up on its own before stretching as if wakening up from some sort of sleep.

Using its hands that were hidden under the sleeves of the cloak, it leaped up onto its feet and look about. Confusion was the first thing to come to mind. Where was he? How did he get there? What was that green thing from before?

These questions were brought to a halt at the sound of sniffling to his left, right, drawing his attention. From the table he stood on he could see a bed, and what look like a… moving lump?

Curiosity getting the best of the small doll, it jumped down from the table, landing in a crouch, before running up to the bed and jumping an impressive three feet. It barley reached the edge of the bed before grasping onto the blanket and pulling himself up. After that, he made his way along the bed and over the mounds that shifted a bit on there own.

Reaching the head of the bed, he glanced down to find a face of a young Human girl. He tilted his head to the side in confusion. Normally, Humans looked peaceful in there sleep, but this one seemed restless. The frown on her lips, the slight sniffles and to top it, the tear stains on her cheeks.

'Why is she sad?' He wondered, walking in front of her face. He couldn't help but lift his cloth hand and gently wipe away another tear that was now making its way down her cheek. It was then that one of her arms that was under her pillow, come out and catch him in a hug and being joined by another arm. It was here that he was stuck with her 'cuddling' him as she slept.

Normally this would be fairly embarrassing to any other, but for him it wasn't. it felt rather nice actually, as he could see a faint smile on her face now. It had been a long time since he saw another Human, and even longer seeing one smile. Perhaps he can just lay here and let her sleep, with him as her tedybear of sorts.

-The next morning-

Louise's eyes fluttered a bit as the sun shown down on her face, coxing her to wake up for the day. She really didn't want to. For one, she was having a more better sleep then she thought, and didn't want to get up. The next was it was nice under the covers and being snuggled under them. And finally, she didn't want to stop cuddling the small doll in her-

'Wait…doll?'

Almost immediately, Louise got up and looked down at the small doll that was in her arms, now laying before her. She couldn't help but blink a few times in confusion. She turned her eyes to the table with the vase and thought 'Dint I leave it on my table?'

She was sure she did, but maybe she didn't. she was tiered last night. Perhaps she took the doll off the table and looked at it before falling back to sleep?

"Whatever, it doesn't matter now." She practically growled while getting out of bed and getting dressed. Picking up her wand off the night stand and tucking it away, she went to work on putting away her things.

During which, she failed to see a certain Doll watch her do all this. It remained silent, only opting to watch her go about packing before asking in a child like voice "Why are you packing?"

The bundle of clothing Louise had in her arms suddenly dropped out from surprise and she turned around and almost yelled in fright "Who's there?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." She heard the voice say, tracking it back to her bed were she found the Doll standing there on its own.

She couldn't help but gasp out "W-what? D-did you- a-are you?" She couldn't put it together, the Doll was standing and looking at her with what looked like yellow dots for eyes.

It only blinked and gave a confused look before asking "Is something the matter?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed, pointing at the current impossibility "Your talking, and standing and, and…" Louise really couldn't find the words. After all, what would most do when a Doll just got up and started to talk.

It only tilted its head the other way in confusion as she went on. "You're a Doll! Dolls aren't suppose to move and talk and watch like you are now!"

"I'm not a Doll." He stated, making the ex-Mage stop in her tracks.

"Then what are you?" She demanded.

"I'm a Puppet." Stated the 'Puppet' before happily saying "And my Name's Hurmy."

Seeing only polite she said "I am Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere."

He looked at her blankly with a "…uhh…"

Sighing she said simply "I'm Louise."

"Oh, ok." he said happily while nodding. Leaving her slightly dumbfounded.

This was all so confusing. Like why was he now of all times, showing his ability to move and talk?

'Wait a moment.' She thought coming to a realization 'My summoning spell didn't fail, it worked!' But when she looked down at the Puppet, it didn't fill her with that much pride. But, then again…

"Hurmy…are you my Familiar?" she wasn't sure why she was asking, but there was a slight hope that he would know.

"Familiar?" He repeated with confusion again.

"Yes, a Familiar." She stated, only to be met with a blank face. Seeing as he had no clue what she was talking about, she tried a different rout "You know, like a servant?"

At that moment his eyes seemed to have gained a glow of recognition "Oh, like a Puppeteer!" It seemed strange to her, but he sounded happy when he said that. Never the less, it was close to the same, so she nodded.

"So you want to be my Puppeteer?" He asked excitedly. She liked the enthusiasm that he showed towards her, but it also confused her in some way.

"Why are you so excited?" She asked the Puppet, decide ding to take a seat on her bed. No sooner did she, id she find him jumping up on her shoulder and sitting down on it and explain.

"I'm a Puppet without a coordinator of sorts." He said sounding a bit glum "I enjoy fallowing others, it gives me purpose. I use to have a Master of sorts, but he past away. He gave me one last order that I plan to fulfill."

Now interested Louise asked "And what was it?"

Turning to her he said "To pass on his Puppet art." He eye smiled while looking to her "I made a wish that I would find my next Puppeteer, and then I was sent here."

"Was he a Mage?" She blurted out, wondering if Hurmy was a construct of sorts.

Hurmy chuckled at her questioned and answered "I guess you could say that." Still laughing a tinny bit "But I don't know if it's the same. But in any case, if fate has brought me to be your Familiar, I will accept."

The Valliere nodded and said "If so, I want to make the contract." She only received a confused look before explaining "In order for you to be seen as my Familiar I need to bind you to a contract. To do that I need you to off my shoulder."

"Oh" He said, hopping off her shoulder and standing on her bed. From there Louise pulled out her wand and silently prayed that this would work.

With a deep breath she lifted her wand and chanted "Petigon of five, please bless this being that he might be my Familiar." Taping his forehead that was still hidden behind shadow before kissing his forehead. The whole time he dared not move, waiting for when his Puppeteer finish.

"There it's done." She said with a small tinge of pink on her cheeks. Even if he wasn't human and it was only to seal the contract, she still felt embarrassed to do the kiss.

It didn't take long for the effects to settle in as a light shown from under his cloak. Once more curious, Hurmy opened the front of his cloak to show Runes inscribing themselves onto his chest. He was rather fascinated as they drew themselves on, and felt a strange feeling go thru him, like he was given some new ability that his Puppet Master didn't teach him.

For Louise, it was something different. She felt joy! She was a Mage for sure, and this proved it! She wasn't a (complete) failure, she didn't need to pack up, she-

"Oh no!" Louise gasped in sudden realization "We need to find Mr. Colbert!" She franticly said, hastily grabbing the half foot Puppet and rushing to the door.

"Huh?" Was his only response as she rushed out the door and thru the stone hallways.

"I'll explain on the way!" Louise said still in panic mode. She needed to find Colbert now!

As she kept on rushing thru the halls, she spotted a maid doing her rounds. Coming to a halt at the main, surprising her, she said with some huffs "Have you seen Professor Colbert?"

Working thru the shock she stuttered "Y-yes Ma'am, he's in the laboratory."

Nodding a quick thanks, Louise was going to start running again before Hurmy said "Louise, can you please set me on your shoulder, I don't like being swung around like a rag doll."

Looking down in her hand, like the even more surprised Maid, she found Hurmy looking slightly dazed from her swinging her arm about while running. She had forgotten about him in all the rush.

"Sorry Hurmy." Louise apologized, setting the Puppet on her shoulder where he seemed to cling to, ready for her to take off. To which, she did.

The Maid could only watch as both Mage and living Puppet sped down the corridors towards the lab with utter disbelief. With a sigh she went back to work muttering "Why cant they enchant the feather dusters to do the dusting?"

-The Tristain Academy Laboratory-

Inside the smoothed out room that held a number of desks, test-tubes, papers, pencils and the occasional forgotten item. On one table (more like three put together) was an assortment of jars, tubs and such with one ever so curious Professor that was mixing the compounds together to hopefully create something worth while. All he had to do was add just a smidge more of the bluish liquid…

It was at this moment the door slammed open with an accompany yell of "Professor Colbert!"

With the sudden shock of interruption, he could only watch helplessly as the concoction dripped an over amount into the other. He closed his eyes and…nothing…

Reopening them he found that it seemed to be stable and didn't explode. He let out a sigh of relief and set it down. Looking to the door he found Miss Valliere at the door with heavy breathing as she leaned on the door.

"Miss Valliere. Why did you rush in so unannounced?" Though he was a bit irked at her almost ruining his experiment, Colbert really didn't have the heart to tell the girl off after the events of yesterday. Most would find this situation the sort of were the Pinkette would plead one last chance before being sent off school grounds. However, the Valliere didn't have that sort of sad or aggressive air around her. It was more of a…

"Professor, the summoning wasn't a failure!" Were her words after calming herself down from whatever run she did to find him. But what she said didn't make sense.

"What do you mean Miss Valliere?" He asked before she took her open hand and brought it up to one of her shoulders were a Doll sat. it was then he did a double take as it was the same Doll she summoned. Then had to rub his eyes as said Doll hopped off her shoulder and onto her awaiting hand.

Smiling, Louise put out her hand with a carefully balanced Doll and introduced "Hurmy, this is professor Colbert, one of the teachers here. Professor, this is Hurmy; he's a Puppet."

'Hurmy' did an eye smile with his yellow eyes that had some type of glow, and waved "Hi!"

Colbert could only look on in surprise and some level of shame. He just failed a student that actually succeeded in the summonds… "What of the contract?" He asked so to be sure.

What he got was a bright smile from Louise and a Puppet moving his cloak open so he could see the chest were the rune was inscribed. Without missing a beat, the Teacher went over to his notes and began to replicate the rune onto it.

"Remarkable!" He commented "I've never seen a rune like this! Is it what brought him to life?" Colbert asked quickly while he continued to write down what was before him.

With a shake of her head she replied "No, he was already moving on his own."

After finishing up on what he was writing, Colbert turned to the young girl and said "Go on and relax Louise. I think this is what you needed to stay."

With a smile and a bow, Louise exited out with a "Thank you!" Cry coming from Hurmy.

Colbert only chuckled and turned around to put the equipment away so he might fix the damage he had done to the poor girl. Unfortunately, when he did turn around he found that his supposedly 'Stable' concoction was more unstable then he thought.

"Oh dear…"

The room was slowly flooding with green, bubbling slime that never cease to come out from the container he put it in. This will take a while.


	2. Like to know you

**All rights to the Anime Familiar Of Zero are not mine**

Louise could not help but have a smile on her lips at this moment in time as she had been given a way to stay a student and continue to learn to be a Mage. And it was all thanks to the small Puppet that was sitting on her shoulder, looking around with some level of fascination.

She decided to take this chance and show off her Nobility "Impressed?"

Hurmy only nodded saying "Just enough. It's quite artistic." Taking another glance at the arcing door ways that lead to one of the outdoor areas that was lined with tables and Students and there Familiars enjoying there time outside.

"Well, just enough wont cut it." Louise proudly started "We Nobles are very good at what we do. The earth Mages that made this Academy were some of the best."

Hurmy only chuckled, making Louise look at him with confusion and slight irritation as to what was so funny. The Puppet caught onto what his Puppeteer was thinking and said "Don't forget Louise, I'm only six inches tall. Big structures will obviously look impressive to me. What I find funny is that though artistic, some of the designs are a little bad if it was ever damaged."

Seeing Louise's dumbfounded look, he decided to point out "Se that door way?"

Fallowing his little arm to one of the arcing doors that lead to the Dining hall, she nodded.

"Now, if you were to look up a little higher you will see a sculptor of a…what is that?" Hurmy asked while looking at what appeared to be some mix of animals.

"It's a sculpture of a Manticor." Louise replied. The Puppet shrugged and muttered "Learn something new everyday." He then reverted back to what he was saying.

"Anyways, though it is a wonderful piece of art, its also dangerous." To make his point, he pointed back down to the door "If it was ever hit with enough force to dislodge it, anybody going in or out that main door will become mush." The mere thought of that happening made the Valliere pail a bit. Then again, she had confidence in the Mages that made this school.

As long as no heavy objects hit it to hard while she was underneath it….

Seeing as she had gone silent at that part, Hurmy decided to pat the side of her head saying "Don't worry, most that get crushed by heavy stuff don't feel a thing…well, at least for those who turn to paste… if you pull thru it's very painful." The last part was him taking a hand and putting it to his chin in thought.

Looking at the Puppet she asked "And how would you know that last part?" She received a 'are you kidding?' look.

"Louise, I need you to think here. If you were only six inches tall and you were surrounded by people about five feet tall that never bother to look where there stepping, what do you think would happen?" he asked with half lidded eyes.

"Point taken." She yielded, knowing what he meant.

From there they lapsed into silence while Louise headed to one of the tables to get something to eat. Due to morning escapade she and her new Puppet servant did, she didn't have time to get her morning meal.

When she found an nice empty table, she made a straight path to it. This didn't exactly go as well as she planed though, as she couldn't help but hear the whispers around her.

"Hey, isn't that Louise? I thought she was leaving?"

"Look, it's the bragging Zero that failed her Summonsing!"

"Good thing she's leavening, no more messes for us to clean."

"Shouldn't she be packing to leave soon?"

"I heard she failed by Summoning some Toy doll!"

The last one made Hurmys eye twitch.

"Louise?" Said a smooth feminine voice that made most young men turn there head on an instant, but only making Louise growl. Turning her head she couldn't help but sarcastically say with a growl "Zerbst, what do I owe this honor?"

"Don't be like that darling, I was only coming over here to make sure it was actually you. Rumor was that you already left." Kirche said with a more stating fact then anything else.

'She maybe a bit harsh by first impression, but I don't see why the Puppeteer would hate her.' Hurmy thought while looking at the young women that was nothing less then eye candy to men.

It was at this point she spotted him and cooed "Oh, isn't that the adorably cute Doll you summoned yesterday Louise?"

As if on command, his eye twitched and his mind had this sudden urge to kill something. Preferably with dark skin and red hair. 'Maybe I should fallow my Puppeteers example.'

"Kirche, I don't want to hear any more, so if you will excuse me." The Pinkette huffed, about facing and heading back to the table that was still in her sights.

"I don't like her." Hurmy stated without looking back.

"Good to know." Louise said with crossed arms before seating herself.

"Louise!" Kurche called, drawing both Mage and Puppets attention to the beauty "I was only trying to be a little considerate." She said making her way to the table.

From there the two begin to get into a small vocal war, with the defending Pink team trying to push away the invading Red team.

Catching a bright color of red, Hurmy looked down to the most largest salamander he had ever seen in his existence! 'How long is that thing?' He thought while dragging his eyes from head to tail. But when he got to the said tail, he couldn't help but feel panic.

Moving to Kirches side, he noted it was getting a small pat on the head from her as she continued to exchange words.

"Psst. Louise!" He harshly whispered into her ear, trying not to draw the Salamanders attention while its owner decided to stop her talk with Louise to give some attention to the beast.

"What?" Asked Louise with a little impatiens from being so close to her rival.

"Dose that Salamander belong to her?"

The question was strange, but nothing big. Or so she thought "Yes."

"Get rid of it!" He hissed, still keeping his eyes on the creatures tail.

Deciding not to ask why, as it would get rid of the red head to, she said "Kirche, why don't you visit one of your boy toys?"

Kirche for her part huffed at Louise's stubbornness and rudeness and replied "Perhaps I will. They can be much warmer company after all." Moving away she called "Come along Flame" getting the Salamander to fallow suit.

Letting off a shutter, he said a rather grateful "Thank you" before putting Kirche on his lease favored list in his mind.

Casting him another puzzled look, Louise asked "What's wrong?"

"You know how that Salamander thingy had a fire on its tail?" She nodded "I'm a Puppet, and we hate fire!" Once again he shivered.

She thought about it for a moment before drawing a conclusion "Because your made up of cloth, right?"

Hurmy nodded, keeping an eye out for the Salamander named 'Flame' oh, how he hates that name! "Puppets, wood or cloth, will always stay away from those with fire as much as they can." He confirmed while relaxing on Louise's shoulder. If he was ground level with that beast, he would have panicked even more.

Louise then snorted and added "Then you should keep away from Kirche." He looked to her for the answer, that she didn't bother to hide. "She has an affinity to Fire, her Familiar shows that rather well to."

'Ok, she will not be on my gift card list any time soon.' He noted while making plans as to how to keep from bursting into flames in her presents. In his defense, it's a completely rationale fear since it included fire.

As Hurmy was having his little monolog in his mind, Louise took her chance to get something from a passing Maid that was passing out mostly treats. At the time though, it didn't matter what it was, as long as it was food, she was hungry!

Taking her fork and twirling it in her hand briefly before taking a chunk out of the cake she chose. For a moment she admired the fluffy white cake with chocolate frosting and a slice of strawberry in the fork before taking a bite. She hummed in pleasure while tasting the flavorful food in her mouth.

After swallowing she decided to ask another question. "Hurmy?"

"Yes Louise?" He replied giving her his full attention.

"Why didn't you show that you were able to…you know, move on your own?" She asked the Puppet that was now jumping from her shoulder to the table, surprising anyone that was actually looking in there direction.

"Because I don't like talking to pyromaniacs." Hurmy said with some strange form of self justification like it was how the world worked. Though the reason behind it was ridicules to her, she still found it funny and laughed at the idea of "Kirche the Pyromaniac" as a title.

"In any case, I'm glade you don't want to talk to her." Said an approving Louise that was taking another bite of her cake.

Feeling his curiosity rising, he asked "Why's that?" Sitting down with his legs out and arms holding him up.

Taking on a slightly irritated look she explained "The Zerbst Family are old Rivals of my Family, the Valliere's." Hurmy could tell this wasn't something that light, he wondered what was so bad to make the two families be aggressive like his Puppeteer here. "For generations the Zerbst would come and steal away my Families Lovers by some charm or form of seduction of there's." By now she was griping the fork a bit more then necessary.

Hurmy only shrugged and said "I don't think that you should be angry at the Zerbst for that." He was rewarded with a glare from Louise.

"And why do you say that?" She asked with an edge in her tone that could cut stone.

Almost fumbling with his words, he stuttered "W-well, isn't it the L-Lovers fault for n-not being loyal enough t-to your Family?"

For a moment Louise just sat there looking at him impassively thinking over his words before nodding "I suppose your right in that respect." And slumped her shoulders.

'Self demise averted.' Hurmy thought while relaxing at Lousie's more calmer demeanor. Seriously, hell hath no fury like the wrath of a women, no less so from a hormonally driven teenaged girl. It didn't make him feel any better knowing she was ten or so times his size.

"But it still bothers me that she draws men around by flaunting herself at them." Louise growled before hearing "Bow-Chika-Bow-Wow!".

She could only stare at a now amused Hurmy that was eye smiling like he was grinning.

"Bow Chika what?" She scrunched up her face trying to find the meaning behind his words. She never heard of it before, what did it mean?

Chuckling he said simply "It's an inside joke."

-(Tristan Academy Head Mage's Office)-

In the well organized circular room with book self's, two desks and one aged man sitting near one of the windows with an overlooking balcony rested his old body in his chair while smoking his pipe. The old Wizard was known by all as Old Osmond, a sort of grandfatherly figure, even if he acted lecheries now and then with his sectary. He didn't do it to often, as it was a hazard to his health.

As of right now he was enjoying the rather peaceful quiet and smoking the calming herbs that gave off a sent of incense. There was a knock at his door that gained his attention. Grasping his staff and giving it a lazy swing, the door opened reveling one of his most active Professors.

"Mr. Colbert, what can I do for you?" Old Osmond asked pleasantly, adjusting himself to sit up a bit more straighter and waving his staff once more to pull out a chair for his younger friend.

Colbert smiled at the gesture and make his way to the chair, trailing a line of green slime with one foot. This didn't go unnoticed by Osmond who raised a wrinkly brow, but decided not to ask what happed during whatever experiment the curious Teacher did this time.

After taking a seat in the wooden chair did Colbert start. "Osmond, it has come to my attention that I have made an…error in evaluating one of the students during the Spring time Familiar summoning rituals."

Now catching the old mans interest, Old Osmond leaned his staff on his desk before folding his hands on his desk with a calm, yet serious expression "Is that so?"

Colbert only nodded to his question, holding his breath as Osmond took his time to think.

After thinking it over, he found it best to look for information "As you know, this is fairly serous deal. Who do you talk of for this correction?"

Stealing himself for a quick moment, Colbert answered "Miss Valliere, sir. It appears that her Familiar wasn't…awake at the time of the summoning. The fact he was a Puppet didn't help, making us think him only an object."

Raising his brow again, Osmond asked "Didn't you say it was a Doll young Valliere summoned?"

Somewhere outside, a Puppet looked about in confusion while having a strange urge to maim an old man.

"I did sir, but it turns out he's a Puppet of some sort, capable of movement and speech. Louise was able to seal a contract with him to." Colbert confirmed with a nod.

Sitting back in his chair and running a hand down his long and grayed beard, Osmond thought the problem over. On one hand, the letter of Louise's failure had already been sent to the mailing bags. Then again, if he sends Colbert now then they advert this problem. On the other hand, did he want Louise staying and making holes in his Academy?

'Well, we have to thank the young girl of making us think of a backup fund for unforeseen damages the likes she does…' He mused in thought before nodded "Go to the stables and be sure to sort thru the messages. I'll call for my secretary so Louise will be allowed to continue learning here."

With a pleased nod, Colbert got up and just about ran out the door. He unfortunately fail to make the turn as he slipped on some of the slime he tracked in and crash into the wall.

-(Back outside with Louise and Hurmy)-

"So, what does being a Puppeteer entitle?" Louise asked wanting to know more about this Puppet art her Familiar was telling her about. She had just finished telling him some of the points of being a Mage and there use in magic, giving her a boost to what ego she had as he ate it up like candy.

But when he mentioned that it made her sound a tinny bit like a Puppeteer, she couldn't help but ask about it. He did mention it during the morning, but not much.

"Well, a Puppeteer as I think I told you, is a person able to control inanimate bodies, or more commonly, Puppets." He said with a teacher like pose, pacing back and forth on the table with his arm held up with a finger pointing up. The sight alone was adorable enough to make her smile at his antics.

"Now, most Puppeteers start with a Puppet of there own creation, that they control via hand movement." He went on before stopping and pointing at her "You are a different case. You are what we would call a Apprentice Puppeteer, as I use to belong to a Puppet Master, and am now handed down to you as his successor of sorts."

Louise nodded, letting the information sink in before Hurmy went on "The role of the Puppeteer is to coordinate there Puppet or Puppets and support them in there tasks."

Almost on impulse, Louise raised her hand slightly, getting a nod from Hurmy to ask her question "What do you mean support in there tasks?"

"Good question Louise. You see, we Puppets are the Puppeteers tool and weapon. We can fight, work, spy, sabotage and much more." He said while making hand gestures the whole time "For example, if a Puppeteer was in danger of being attacked, there Puppet, being controlled o under there command, will get in the way and act like a shield before fighting."

"If the Puppet is at a disadvantage with there Opponent, then the Puppeteer are to support them by shouting a ancient word to give them a new attack, technique, enhance there power, evasion, speed or defense."

"I can do that?" Louise asked with some level of excitement, making Hurmy chuckle again, but shake his head "Not yet, but in time you will."

At that the Pinkette pouted, making this rather cute face that made Hurmy eye smile and say "Don't fret, I'll be sure to teach you how in time. Then once you get good enough, I can teach you more complex techniques."

Looking back at Hurmy's eye smile, Louise couldn't help but smile back. She wasn't sure why she was so happy with him, she should be angry for having a half foot Familiar that is next to helpless due to size alone! But, at the same time, this size makes him seem less threatening to her and he's somewhat sweet, not to mention adorable, making it next to impossible for her to hate him.

Then it came to her "Could you teach me one of those techniques now?"

Hurmy thought about it for a moment before he was interrupted by some sort of commotion. Without a word, Louise stood up and waited a moment for her Puppet to jump on her left shoulder before going to see what was going on.

"Guiche! How could you?!" Shrieked one voice before the crowd as they made there way thru to see.

"Montmorecy, let me explain!" A blond tried to say, holding up his arms in a pathetic gesture of defense.

"Guiche, how do you know her?" Asked a concerned brunette that was looking to and from Guiche and Montmorecy.

"Katie, this is one big miss understanding my Love-"

"What did you call her!"

While Louise watched with unsurprised amusement, Hurmy could only shake his head and comment "He would make a terrible Puppeteer."

Piquing her interest, the young Mage asked "Why do you say that?"

Finding this as a good moment for a quick lesson, he explained "To master the art of Puppeteering, you must be able to manipulate." Point to Guiche, who was getting more and more worried by the moment, as he went on "He is a poor example of a manipulator, only using sweet, loving words with both girls. Because of this, it terribly backfires."

"And what would have you done?" Asked Louise.

"In an instance like this, it would depend on my background as a shield and some well placed words to calm them both down and suitably draw them off subject." With a quick glance at Louise he stated more then asked "He's a known skirt chaser, isn't he."

She nodded right before a resounding slap was heard.

"Good contact on that one." He remarked while Louise only nodded again.

Though stunned at what happened, Guiche didn't stay distracted for long as his ears picked up the laugher that played around him after his humiliation. Looking from left to right, he thought of how to bandage up his wounded pride. It didn't take long as he found the perfect scapegoat that help cause this huge problem in the first place.

"You, Maid!" He said with authority while pointing a rose like wand at a Maidservant that was the center of attention. "Due to your senselessness, the tears of two maidens have been spilt!"

'Oh boy. The Scapegoat tactic. He must be desperate to hold his pride' Noted the Puppet.

"How do you plan to pay in full for what you have done?" He asked with a slight glare that made her worry.

Though he was one to manipulate, Hurmy couldn't stand what he was seeing. Taping Louise's head, he said "Catch me." Before his entire body went limp. For a second Louise fumbled with him before getting a grasp on the limp Puppet wondering what happened.

"Please my Lord, forgive me!" The Maid said while bowing. Guiche smirked at her stating "Very well, on the grounds that-"

For some unknown reason, his body suddenly went rigid, cutting himself off. For a while he remained silent while his blond hair overshadowed his eyes. Before anyone could ask, his head lifted back up while wearing a rather pained look.

"Excuse me, but I think I might have eaten something bad." He said leaning over a bit before directing a glare at her "We will discuss this at later date." with that he turned around and left the area.

Everyone else only looked at one another in utter confusion but shrugged it off. Louise though, was panicking a bit from her Familiars lack of movement

"This isn't funny Hurmy!" She harshly whispered, trying not to draw any attention to herself, as she could be seen as crazy for talking to a limp Puppet. She did this for a while longer before giving up and setting him down on the table.

No sooner did she, did he pop back to life. "Okay, there is no way I'm going to do that to him anytime soon!" He seethed, not to happy with his idea as much.

"Familiar, what did you do? Why did you just go limp on me?" Shot Louise who didn't like his stunt.

Looking to her he said "I used a Puppeteer Technique." She just looked at him and repeated "What did you do?"

Decide ding to sit down for this one he said "It's call Overshadowing. It's an advance move were one can control and read a victims thoughts, body and so on. Even if your body goes limp in order for it to work, it's quite useful."

From there Louise went wide-eyed.

"Yes Louise, I took over that pervert, Guiche's, mind and body. Admittedly, I don't what to do so again any time soon. A complet mess in there." Hurmy said while tapping his own head.

Still wide-eyed, Louise said "You took control of his body!?"

"At the price of leavening mine utterly helpless." He shrugged like it was no big deal.

'What have I summoned?' Was her resounding thought.


	3. Nighmare

**All rights to the Anime Familiar Of Zero are not mine**

Louise let out a yawn before rubbing her eyes a bit before looking back down at the book in front of her about Magic theorem. After the little incident with Guiche and how he was basically mind controlled by what most would call a doll, Louise had asked questions as to what happens when Hurmy used his Overshadow Technique.

It was apparently a very advance technique that Puppeteers, or some special Puppets like himself, could do, at the price of letting there bodies go limp and be fore all intents and purposes, a sitting duck. In exchange, the caster could control the victims movements, speech and have some input into there minds. And once they were done and left the body, the victim was none the wiser to being controlled.

The thought actually scared her a bit to know that a little Puppet could control someone for his own ends, and would be difficult to find. But that did get her thinking and made her ask if she could learn it any time soon. Her answer was that she wasn't ready at all, and if she attempted it a few things could go south.

One example was that she would be trapped in the 'Victims' mind.

Another was she would be stuck outside her body.

Then there was, what he called the infamous Mental Shredding, which was basically a persons mind being shattered to the point they cant be considered living anymore. It was apparently the most common thing to happen to armatures that attempted the technique way too early.

Though she was slightly disappointed (but all the same relived knowing in advance of the risks) of not learning it, he did give her a reason to look towards tomorrow, as he planed on teaching her how to use him to his full potential. This also opened up some new possibilities for her as well, as she would be the first Puppeteer of her kind in her kingdom. Or, more better, the first Mage Puppeteer, as Magic was an almost unknown thing from where Hurmy was from, so this would be a first!

It was one of the reasons she had this particular book, as it was on Enchantments and binding sentient power to objects. But from what she could read, she was no were near skilled or ready for trying this. She only prayed that what the Puppet had in mind would work and not blowup in her face.

Speaking of the sack-boy, Hurmy was on her table with a pile of leftover cloth that they got from the servants around the school, as well as some string and sowing tools.

Hurmy was enjoying himself as he cut the cloth into the shapes they needed to be before stitching together and shaping it. He didn't tell Louise what he was making just yet, as he was planning on make around twenty or so by the time daybreak, as well as five more for some of her Puppeteer training.

Hearing a rather long yawn, the small Puppet couldn't stop but look back to where Louise was slightly slumped over and reading that book she got from the library.

Taking initiative, Hurmy put down his work and took some steps back before breaking into a full run. Right as he reached the edge did he jump onto one of the heads of the chairs near the table and leaped from there to her desk. He almost made the leap, only to yelp as he slip on the edge of the desk and slid down it till he was only hanging by his fingertips.

Luckily he was spared a rather embarrassing fall to the floor by the tiered pinkette who took notice of him and lifted him up and onto the desk.

Before she could ask why he had did his little stunt, he said "Louise, you need to get some sleep. It's late, and if I remember right you have class tomorrow."

Letting out a sigh she said "Not yet Hurmy. I'm almost done with this page." Yawning again she went back to reading the last page before turning it and starting again. This was intercepted by the Puppet however, who gave her a scolding like glare.

"Nu-uh." He shook his little head with fists on his waist line "You are going to change and get to bed. You can read more latter." She opened her mouth to protest, but was cut off again "I'm a Puppet, I don't need sleep. Your Human, you need it. Now go get some sleep.

From there he took the bookmark that was on the desk and shoved it into the book before closing it.

"But Hurmy-"

"No buts! As your Puppet, it is my job to make sure you are in top condition." He said crossed arms before pouting behind her saying "Bed. Now."

Grudgingly Louise got up and grumbled about being ordered by a little midget of a doll, when it was her that should be doing the ordering. Though Hurmy didn't hear most of what she was saying, he did narrow his eyes at her, very sure the word "Doll" was in there somewhere.

-(Early morning)-

Putting down the needle in his had, Hurmy could only proudly look down at his handiwork that was done over the night. Truthfully he only got thirteen of them done, but it was a good job none the less. Boy was his Master going to be surprised! The very thought made him swell with pride again.

But right now was not the time for that, but to get them up and moving. Reaching over and grabbing each of his creations that resembled empty cloth bodies and put them on there backs before him. Raising both hands with finger dangling before him and focus on the soon-to-be Puppets before him.

"Animo Pupus Servus!" He all but shouted while flexing his cloths hands.

With that, all thirteen cloth bodies jolted and twitched before shadow like wisps began to flow into the open hoods of each one, filling them as if being stuffed by cotton. After three full minutes of twitching bodies and careful focusing on the bodies, did Hurmy stop. As soon as his influence was cut off, the bodies all slumped back down. He waited a few moments, watching with anticipation.

In the corner of his eye did he catch some movement and turn his attention to the now slowly rising Puppet. Slowly and carefully, the new Puppet sat itself up and stared its blank shadowy face at its lap. In a suddenly swift motion did its head snap up, letting two white orbs glow in the ever so dark hood, showing it was a successful animation.

It's body was just like the others. One simple hood attached to a simple raged jacket. The body itself was very basic and about the same height as him. Though, latter on Hurmy knew they would start developing slight personality traits that would change there eye color and cause them to make alterations to themselves a bit.

It wasn't long before others began to fallow the first and 'wake up' for the first time in there new lives.

-(Dream World)-

Have you ever have a dream that you never wanted to wake from? One that was so good and detailed that you wish it never ended? Well, Louise was having an experience in her dream. And she wanted out.

At first, it started out rather nice, with her as a younger child in a simple yellow dress, out playing with her sibling Cattleya that was younger too, in there garden. It was one where she wasn't ill like she was now and could run with her from dawn to dusk.

It was her turn to chase her older sister, and she did so, running around the corners of the bushes and looking behind the statues. But no matter how much she looked for her sister she couldn't find her. Further more, it was getting dark out.

"Cattleya! Where are you?" Her younger self cried out around herself. As she turned about looking for her sister, she barely noticed the green bushes lose there colorful leave that turned brown, leavening dead branches in there wake. "Cattleya!"

Slowly did the sky darken into night and chilling winds began whistle with the dancing dead leave. Soon she began to run thru there dyeing guardian. As she ran looking for her sister, Louise's younger self began to pass trees, drawing more panicked breaths as she ran over the crouching leaves under her feet.

She wasn't in there guardian anymore, she realized. Only dead leaves that crunched underfoot, tell dead trees that had lost all life, and her now current sixteen year old self that was still running.

Why was she still running?

She couldn't remember why, all she felt was fear. But why was she so scared? She couldn't remember, but she had to run away from something! Or was it too something?

She could only shake her head in frustration while tears welled in her eyes.

"Louise…"

The young Mage stopped in her tracks at the whisper of the voice.

"Louise…"

Whipping around she found herself face to face to Cattleya in her older form to, smiling softly. "Cattleya!" Louise said with relief washing over her and that fear slowly washing away.

Her older sister continued to smile as she said "Louise, it's time to go home." and held out her hand. Louise smiled and was going to take the offered hand before stopping in her tracks again. Going thru the back of her sisters hand and out the front was an iron nail. She could see the blood trickling down the pointed edged that was pointing out where she was going to take her sisters hand.

From there things began to reveal themselves slowly. The head of the nail that went thru her hand had some sort of…thin line going straight up into the sky. Her eyes began to fallow the line-

"Is everything alright Louise?" He sister asked, bringing Louise to look back to her sisters face.

When she was going to reply, that was when she noticed the next thing. Here sisters eyes were glazed over with pain with cheeks stained with tears, and not the shining orbs of comfort she knew.

She took a step back and saw slight trails of blood from where her neck was, showing the same line wrapped around it and cutting the skin lightly.

"Louise, it's alright, come home with me." Her 'supposed' sister said sweetly moving forwards while lifting up her other arm and showing another hand ran thru with it's own Iron nail and line reaching for the sky.

Snapping her head up and fallowing them to there origin and feeling her eyes widen in fear. There was someone, taller then the trees themselves with a outstretched hand with each line tied to a different finger. She could see those cold blue lights-for-eyes looking at her and a glowing blue mouth open and close while her sister said at the same moment "Louise, please come here, it's time to head home."

Looking back down she could see her sisters eyes still in pain and letting out more tears. It was then it came to Louise, and thru the fear she was feeling, she yelled up to the shadowed thing "What did you do to my sister!"

It did not answer, only push its hand forwards, in turn, sending her sister at her and grabbing her in the outstretched arms. She could feel the iron nails dig into her back and feel the hot tears running freely from her sisters face while she screamed in pain.

She struggled, trying to get free from her sister bound by strings of some creature that had there control over them like some…

-(Reality)-

Louise's eyes snapped open and screamed "NO!" And sent a bunch of little Puppets flying off both her and the bed, crashing onto the floor. She was currently trying to calm herself down and didn't even notice them at all. She could feel herself in sweat and fast beating heart. 'What was that?' She asked herself, still trying to bring her breathing under control.

"Louise?"

"ACK!" The girl couldn't stop herself as she jumped away from the voice and to the other side of the bed, where she proceeded to fall onto the stone floor with a thump.

Rubbing her sore head, she glared up at the edge of the bed from where she fell and spotted a head now poking over it with concern in its eyes.

"Are you alright?" Hurmy asked his Puppeteer that only increased her glare only further at him. With some nervousness he said "I-I'll just get your cloths ready Ma'am." And was gone from sight by ducking his head behind the edge.

Letting out a sigh, Louise pulled herself up and rubbed some of the sand out of her eyes before looking at her bed tiredly to find her cloths and her Puppets setting them out for…

'Hurmy's the only Puppet I have.' She thought as she stared at the small task force before her. She blinked. Then repeated the process a few times.

"Hurmy?" She said, catching the attention of said Puppet who was helping the other Puppets with there work. "Yes Louise?" He tillted his head while pulling with two others to bring up her Cloak onto the bed.

"Where did…they come from?" She pointed as 'they' being the Puppets, went on with there work without taking notice of the conversation.

Giving a bright eye smile he said "You know that sowing I was doing last night?" At her nod he continued "Well, seeing as I'm only one little Puppet and you have no experience with Puppeteering, I decided to add a few more Puppets to your party so I might start teaching you some tricks."

For a moment she just stood there processing the information before saying "Tricks as in…" And dragged off still not really sure what he was implying.

With one last yank, he and the other Puppets got the Cloak onto the bed, letting him walk up to Louise "As in, I'm going to teach you how to use Ancient words and the first steps of Puppet Manipulation. I was thinking last night about you being a Mage, so I want to try something."

Louise nodded at him as she begin to undress out of her night gown and into her uniform clothing. As she changed though, she couldn't help but think back to that nightmare she had. Seeing her sister in such a stated, it made her both angry, yet terrified. Mentally shaking that thought out of her mind, she turned to Hurmy and put out her hand.

Seeing the offered hand, Hurmy jumped on and rode it till it reached her shoulder where he jumped onto and sat down.

-(Dining hall)-

Inside the Dinning hall was a buzzing with life as students converse with one another and savants setting out more food or cleaning out empty plates. There were murmurs of gossip, rumors and the occasional fact that ran thru the student body as they ate while enjoying one encounters company to some level.

For Louise it was the same irritating morning filled with nonsense of things like gossip.

Then again, she didn't really have any friends here, so she didn't have anyone to gossip with anyways. The only Friend she had (or the closest thing she had) was Hurmy who stayed on his perch. Beneath her Cloak were the other thirteen Puppet, who refused to stay put in her room and wanted to serve Hurmy who made them, and in turn, serve her.

She was starting to wonder what her little Puppet could completely do. First he can move on his own, then shows a good level of intelligent, after that he showed he could control a person, and now he can make Puppets that would fallow his every whim!

Oh, and he was going to teach her how to do all that and more, using his own observations, knowledge and experience.

…

Who knew such a little guy like him could be so…useful. True he was a surprise at first, and she thought him to be slightly useless due to his size, but he is proving to be more useful then most Familiars already.

Shrugging that thought aside, she sat down at the nearest table and started to pile what she wanted onto her plate before taking her fork and eat.

After she was done with that did she get up and make her way to her first class, very much hoping it would pass by quickly. She was eager to learn something new from Hurmy.

After she was done with her classes though, did she speed out of the Academy with thirteen now visible Puppets fallowing after her. This actually got a few heads to turn at the sight of her leading a small bad of Dolls about and leavening them in utter confusion. Though, some did start to run some new rumors about it soon after.

Fallowing Hurmys instructions, Louise got one of the stables horses to use and road to the nearest forest. He said that some Puppeteering Spells (He decided to label it instead of Technique, as she was a Mage) can have different results if failed. That and the fact he didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to her just yet.

"So what will I learn first?" Louise asked while tying the horse to one of the surrounding trees while she practice. The Puppets that were in one of the pouches on the horse, all jumped out and lined up behind her, waiting for there first order.

"Well, what I'm first going to teach you is how to know your inner power and how to use it." He said jumping off her shoulder and whistling real quick to get the Puppets to make a line before the two.

Looking back at her, he eye smiled and said "Now, lets begin."


	4. A bit of learning

**All rights to the Anime Familiar Of Zero are not mine**

It has been two days since Hurmy started teaching Louise how to us her now developing Puppeteer abilities. Finding her inner power was rather easy, as it seemed to be what Mages called Mana, and since Louise knew how to channel it to her wand, all he had to do was teach her how to channel it to her hands and fingertips. The next part was going to be a bit harder, as she had to use a Puppet Spell.

At first Louise was apprehensive about trying out a new spell, but didn't tell him as to why and went ahead and tried it. The first one she was to lean was three Enhancing spells.

"To use these Puppet Spells, you must know three words and say them in a certain order." Hurmy said, paceing like a teacher on her desk before her "The first word is the Base Word. These are used to make what you want. Then you fallow it up with a Effect Word, granting what effects you want it to have. And finally, the Finishing word, which gives you the result you want."

Processing what he said, Louise asked "Can you give me an example for better understanding?"

With a nod he said "One example I will tell you is: Augeo Sphonda, Propero, a speed spell for the legs. It loosely translates too Enhance Legs Speed."

"So it's like casting anyone of our spells" Louise mused before asking "Can you add more words or do it with less?"

"No." Hurmy shook his head and explained "To little, and it will randomly misfire. To much, and it will degrade and be too weak to work."

Nodding her head in understanding at this, he continued "Now I will teach you three Puppet Spells to start out with. I already told you one for speed, the next is: Augeo Arma Potentia, a strength spell for our arms. Then there's: Corpus Resisto Ignis, a spell for Puppets to resist fire."

Furrowing his brow, she asked "How long do they last, and how strong are they?"

Taking a thoughtful pose Hurmy mused "Depending on how well the Puppeteer controls there spell during it casting, it will last longer or act stronger." Looking up to her he shrug "To be frank, it's hard to tell. My old Master -bless his soul- could make that resistant spell last for days and let me walk thru infernos that would otherwise light me up as soon as I entered."

"And me?" Louise asked rather hopefully.

"It will be hard to tell until you cast your first spell on me or the others." He said gesturing to the now large number of thirty Puppets that were either sitting doing nothing or working on something for themselves.

Looking thoughtful she asked "What spell do you think I should try first?"

"Either one but the resist fire one." He stated with crossed arms "I for one, speak for us all when I say, none of us want to test how fire resistant we are." All the other Puppets in the room nodded in agreement.

Louise only rolled her eyes at them "I know that, any one with half a mind would know not to try that at first."

"Cant be to careful." Hurmy stated.

"But joking aside, I would suggest trying the speed spell first." He told her "It will be easer for us to control and wont bite us in the end."

With a nod of her head, Louise lifted her hands and focused her mana into them and slowly seep out of her fingertips. "Good Louise, don't forget to wind it up like strings." The Puppet told her as he kept an eye on her progress.

Slowly the white like glow that seeped from her fingertips began to tighten themselves into something along the lines of fine string, making it next to impossible to see. She watched Hurmy puppeteer a little to show her an example of how to control Puppets with ones hands. She asked why his hands didn't show any strings like hers did and was told that it was just lack of experience then anything else.

One of the Puppets nearby, picked itself up and walked before Louise, ready and waiting for her to make the mana made strings to attach. After a few seconds of working the strings to the Puppet and gaining some control to it, did she say "Augeo Sphonda Propero!"

On an instant, the Puppets white-eyes-turning-green flashed as the spell took effect and rush to its legs.

Looking to Hurmy to see if she got anything wrong, she was given a pleased nod letting her know it was set.

"Very good Louise! Now, lets put our little friend here thru a small test run." Stated a happy Puppet, who was egger to see how powerful and refined her spell was.

"Right." Louise nodded, looking to a spot in her room to have the Puppet move too. Finding one far enough, Louise began orchestrate her hands and fingers in a careful manner while employing her mind to help control the flow of mana at the same time. In a normal sense, a Puppeteer would have a difficult time doing so much in such early stages of this practice, but due to the Puppets having there own level of control of there own bodies helped greatly.

She herself, would not be able to control a single motionless Puppet of any sort yet, where as these Puppets would allow her to control them and help keep the connection between them. It also made for good stepping stone for her in Hurmys opinion.

Then, with a flick of her wrists, she sent the Puppet under her control running to the appointed spot. Most in the room were rather surprised at the speed it went when it jumped off the desk and landed on the floor. If it wasn't for the Puppets cleaning her room (out of boredom) she would have no doubted it would leave a dust trail behind, as well as a small cloud at where it stopped. The Puppet itself, actually looked down at the ground it was standing on with some level of awe at what it was able to do after the spell was cast on it.

A whistle brought Louise out of her surprise and looked to her Summons who looked on impressed. "I have to say Louise, that was something." He said with an edge of anticipation "Once you can speed up your Mana Strings and better your control over them, then you can really give us Puppets quite the boost in power."

"You really think so?" The new hopeful Puppeteer asked.

"Oh, I know so!" He returned with a thumbs up "I cant wait until the time you can connect those Mana strings up with us and cast those spells without needing to control us!"

With wide eyes she said "I can do that?"

"In time." He shrugged before pointing back at the Puppet she moved. "Keep moving him around. I would like to see how long it lasts before it runs dry."

With a nod, Louise looked back to the small Puppet that had been rooted in the same spot before moving her arms about. From there, the Puppet fallowed each of her commands thru the nonexistent strings, zooming from wall, bed, table, corner and between other Puppets. They kept this up for a good while before Louise's arms began to tire from being held up for so long, thus breaking the connection.

Unfortunately for the Puppet, he was still running, and as soon as the connection was broken, so was his control and speed. Not able to move his legs as fast, or get control of them, he tripped and went head over heels before crashing into another Puppet and into the wall. There, they laid in a mess with swirling eyes.

Disregarding the little accident, the pinkette got up and lifted her cloak off the chair she was in. no sooner did she, did six Puppets all scramble to it and climbed on the inside of it and into six pockets made just for them. With them inside each pocket, Louise put the cape on and put out her arm to Humy, who jumped onto the hand and ran up the arm, claming his perch on her shoulder.

"I'm heading out. The rest of you behave yourselves." Louise said as she walked out the door, closing it behind her and made her way down the hallway.

"Where are we going Louise?" asked the small Puppet on her shoulder, glancing at each student and teacher they came by.

"There were some books I wish to look at before tomorrows test." Was her answer while taking a left to the stairs.

Cocking his head to the side he asked "The one on transmutation?" She only nodded "I wish I could help, but the only sort of transmutation I know is how to alter wood Puppets to steel for a few minutes."

"Really?" She asked with interest.

"Indeed." Hurmy nodded "It's mainly used for defense or adding weight. Only drawbacks is its harder to control and the Puppet is so heavy that they cant move that well."

"Then what's the use of it if they cant move?" She asked. The idea of having an immobile Puppet didn't sit well with her, so why use it?

Shaking his head he explained "They use it to be like a wall for the Puppeteer to hid behind, or to add weight to little puppets such as myself, to slow opponents down or pull down levers and ropes. But I'm a cloth Puppet, so it wouldn't work for me."

For a moment Louise thought about what he said, and could see how it could be useful. If the Puppet was about her size and was turned to steel, then she didn't need to worry as much about it being harmed and made a fine place to hid behind. As for the other reason, she could understand more greatly.

Hurmy was extremely light weight, even for cloth. So were the others. In fact, the ones in the pockets of her cloak didn't feel weighed down at all. If that Mutation Puppet spell made them more heavy, and her having so many of these little Puppets- if they were to swarm onto a person and suddenly turn into heavy peaces of metal, they would be slowed greatly. But as Hurmy explained, he was a cloth Puppet, so were the others. This was used for wood Puppets.

Putting her hand to her chin, she mussed to herself "This Puppeteering seems to call for more thinking then a Mage's knowledge…"

Hrumy only shrugged at that "To be a Puppet Master, you need to be able to out wit others so you might successfully manipulate them."

"That's another thing." Louise said "You always keep telling me it's an art of manipulation. Is there any Puppeteering that doesn't include something so…dark?"

Blinking a few times, Hurmy only said "It depends on how you look at it. Manipulation isn't really evil, but it's branded as such because so many criminals use it."

"I suppose…" Louise reluctantly agreed.

"After all, you have Politicians, and they can be Manipulative on different levels and do it for the better good. This can be done vice-versa with those who want power or wealth."

For a while they just went silent into there own thoughts. The library wasn't to much further, but Louise felt she needed to ask.

"Do you think I'll end up like that?" Hurmy had to blink a few times and stop thinking about dancing cupcakes to process what she said.

"Huh?" Was his only intelligent reply.

Taking another breath and said "Do you think I'll end up doing evil?"

Her Familiar only shrugged saying "I cant tell you for sure. I can only say that I'll do what I can to keep you off that path if you wish me to."

It wasn't long after this that they reached the door to the library and made it inside. Like any library it had an impressive amount of books of various subjects, with most having some dust on them from lack of use.

Louise made her way down each row of books, looking for that ever so evasive book she would need. It was a few minutes latter she found the book she wanted, only it was to much out of her reach.

She scrunched up her face in annoyance and glared up at the high shelf heatedly.

"Um…Louise?" Turning her gaze to Hurmy, who slightly flinched at her glare, he said "If you toss me up, I could get it."

Almost instantly, she lost her glare and smiled at the idea. Reaching up and grabbing him (causing him to make a little squeak) she aimed and threw him up. Hurmy flew up a few feet before starting to come back down and grasping onto the shelf.

Carefully situating himself on the ledge, he began to make his way to the book. Once he reached it, he began to tug on it and said a quick warning to Louise, who readied herself to catch it. With two more tugs did it come free, leaving both Puppet and book in a free fall.

That was to say, until Louise caught them both.

"You ok?" She asked Hurmy, who sprung up an arm with a thumbs up with a "A-OK!"

Rolling her eyes at his antics, she placed both him and the book down on a table and taking a seat before reading. Hurmy looked at the book curiously, but overall ignored it. He wasn't much of a reader, and most of it went over his head anyways. He only shrugged and sat back down and waited.

-(Next day)-

Louise looked on with determination while holding the quill in her hand, and all but glaring at the paper before her. The test before her was difficult, and it was certainly challenging her knowledge on the subject of Transmutation of earth type magic.

The test itself wasn't going to be the difficult part, it was what came after it. Afterwards, all students were to do a 'Demonstration' of a spell they had studied. This is what she was worried about, as it would further embarrassed the reputation she gained.

"Louise, are you alright?" Her Puppet summon asked with slight worry. Louise had been acting somewhat nervous since this morning, and even more so when the Teacher, Miss Chevreuse, told them what there test was.

He could only assume that she was nervous about the test being on earth magic, and that it wasn't one of her strong points.

With that in mind, he just watched as his summoner write down her answers, getting the correct at every chance. He was rather surprised how smart Louise was at times, it made him wonder if the students around even realize her intelligent. They seem to think lowly of her, and the only reason he knows this is because they talk behind her back very often.

wouldn't be long before some mishap would happen only moments latter. Oh, the joys of using six inch Puppets to do your pranks with.

While the Puppet internally snickered with his little devil side encouraging such thoughts, Louise was almost sweating at what she had to do next. She was just about done with the written part of there test, and fast approaching was the actual casting. It was nerve wrecking in a sense.

that's when the time came.

Rather slowly, each student was called up to transmutation a ball of rock into a different material that was within there abilities. Hurmy gave a few encouraging pats on the shoulder he sat on while she made her way up.

She looked down at the small ball of stone with some apprehension before taking a calming breath. 'I can do this.' She resolved in her mind, lifting her wand.

Though he was focused on what his master was doing, he couldn't help but look behind himself to see what some of the shuffling was. Watching rather curiously, he wondered why the other students were…hunkering down?

'Hurmy believes I can.' And with new confidence, caste her spell.

Nothing happened.

Hurmy tilted his head in confusion and Louise was about to hang her head in disappointment, only to be caught off guard from a bright flash and explosion.

Both Mage and Puppet went flying back, with Louise going a few feet while Hurmy slammed into the wall and muttered something about rag dolls.

-(An hour later)-

Louise and her little army of Puppets were all scattered about the now scorched classroom, scrubbing every inch of it with brushes. After the explosion had happened, she could not keep her head up anymore and just hung it with shame.

'Just another failure to add to my list of failures…' She thought, scrubbing a bit slowly. She looked to her left and watched as her puppets continued to work with a sort of happiness that confused her.

Why were they so content with cleaning mess this size anyways? It baffled her to some degree.

She looked to her right and found more puppets scrubbing the steps, working together to do tasks that would be difficult for there size.

Looking behind herself, she could see Hurmy working with a few others to help clean the mess. She had to ask.

"Hurmy?" That one name, no matter how quiet seemed to always get the Puppets attention, this being no different as he stopped what he was doing and ran right to her.

"Yes Louise?" He responded immediately. It was almost as if he was egger to hear her order or question.

"Why are all you Puppets so…" She stopped what she was say and tried to find the right word. Admittedly, it was hard to find the word she was looking for but settled for "So happy with work?"

It was hard to understand for her. No matter the task, no matter the time, no matter what, they seemed to do everything without complaint. Unless fire was involved, then they get nervous or finicky, but that was to be expected when ones made of such a flammable material.

"That's simple Louise." He said happily "It's one of the first things we talked about after we met."

"It was?" Was the confused question.

Nodding he said "I told you that I would become your Familiar because it would give me purpose."

Purpose? Was that why he, and in turn all the rest, fallowed her orders? "I don't quiet understand…" She murmured, trying to understand.

With a sigh of his own, he explain "We're created to fallow others Louise." And glanced to the still working Puppets around them "Normal Puppets don't have any soul. There just…moving animate objects that fallow the words of the strong willed."

With that he strolled back off to another group to help with the clean up and leave Louise to her thought.

'Constructs that only fallow those of strong will.' She thought, deciding to work while she thought.

'And that's because they don't have a Soul?' She scrunched her brows in thought over it and recalled Guiche's bronze golems. In a sense, they were the same. All they did was fallow what the mage willed them to do. On occasion they would show some sentience, but that was because of the slight mental link they held with the mage, sometimes making them act like there creator.

It was at this she stopped scrubbing as a confusing thought came to mind. 'Hurmy's a Puppet, just like the rest.' Glancing up at her first Puppet, she watched as he took command of a few and ordered them on how to get a particularly hard mark out.

'If that's so, then how can he be so much more…' She couldn't get any further then that, as it didn't make much sense. Mixing with what she knew of Puppets and what she knew of Constructs made with magic and there similarities- she couldn't puzzle it out.

Hurmy made all the other Puppets, so they act a little like him, even holding the same fear of fire. But if his last statement was to go by, then he shouldn't have such independents. After all, if a Golem, Familiar's, Servant or solder were to lose there master, they usually didn't know what to do or stop doing anything. The difference's?

Golems and Familiar's will either leave or disappear after there master is gone.

Servants and Solders will either make new lives or find another to serve.

Hurmy was intelligent. Too intelligent for a normal Puppet. So what made him so different?

(A/N)

Alright, i've been gone for quiet some time, so i'll just say a quick soory for that. i was busy tickering with some other fic ideas that had been running thru my head. some to note are Slenderman, Naruto and even Starwars- but havent made much progress any any of them. anyways, hope you liked this chapter and furhter hope you like the next. untill next them.


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